A New World
by Jason Smith
Summary: My personal spin on the final events of Diablo II


DISCLAIMER: I in no way own the rights to Diablo©, Diablo II© or Diablo II: The Lord of Destruction©; that is entirely owned and operated by Blizzard©. Having said that, let's go on. A New World  
  
..?...............................................  
  
My thoughts are.beyond me. My Wings beat against the vortex of power that is the Worldstone. Pieces of Mt. Arreat smash themselves to together as bolts of pure power leap from the bottom of the Chamber to its roof. All around me, magic that would give the highest pause destroys and creates with a beauty too terrible to comprehend. Yet, my mind wanders...to the past.  
  
I remember.........  
  
The past is not something I think of often, there is too much of it. When a human's life flashes before his eyes, it takes but moment for it is so brief. But my life?... I remember, things long, long gone; nations, races, worlds. I have witnessed innumerable star births, witnessed each star wandering through infinity in search of a purpose. Each living and dying, never realizing that countless beings lived beneath it, because of it. I remember beholding the death of entire UNIVERSES, and wondering what it is like to die. I remember the very first spark of creation, and the yearning I felt in my spirit to be a part of it. I do not know what I should feel now. Triumph, for victory over the Three? Failure, for the destruction of the Worldstone? Defeat, for my dying with the Worldstone? I feel joy that humanity has survived. Yet I feel despair, that humanity may still fall.  
  
Humanity.  
  
I remember standing unseen beside the first man. I stood helpless and indecisive as he chose the fruit and a mortal life.Chose... All my ages of life, all my wisdom and I could not decide whether to stop him or not. I could only stand and stare, awed and terrified that a race so young had the courage to dare choose death and responsibility for its actions. Since that Day I have tried to help and protect that young race. I promised to watch over that race that should still be in its garden nursery. But...I...have failed.  
  
No more time.  
  
I must do it, and soon. The worldstone is tainted now, though this all started long before.Azual, I blame myself for him. If only I had seen his growing corruption, I might have stopped it....Humanity, the race whose survival I placed above the interests of Heaven..the Soulstones, and their power which I gave to humanity.and The Three. Who played me for a fool, corrupted the Soulstones, and now...corrupted their source.  
  
All of this is my fault.....  
  
All of this I take responsibility for...  
  
I kneel down upon the walkway, my wings struggling to keep me still against the power radiating from the Worldstone. I pray, because.because.it seems the right thing to do. It's strange, for I have seen death in all its forms over the eons; I don't know what to do in the face my own end. A man asked me that once, 'How do I face death?'What I told him that day..I cannot remember, but I remember that he died well. Yes, he did, he died as proud and at peace and.as strong.as he was the day he was born. He died as though he was being born.  
  
Now......  
  
I know now what to do. I stand, and barely waiting to pause I take my sword, my will, and hurl it at the stone. There is a moment of silence as my sword pierces it. A roaring replaces the silence and faint glow upon the chamber walls dies as the Worldstone fades to black.  
  
I.choose.  
  
The shell cracks and begins to shatter. Millions of deadly shards shoot through me. They cannot harm me, nothing of this world can. But the power those shards contained, the same primal power that I am, can. My wings are unable to hold against this gale, they splinter and snap, and without them I am torn from my place on the mortal plane and slammed into the chamber's wall. My impact sends deep cracks through the wall and the primal magic I have unleashed rips through me..tearing me.killing me. dissolving me. I feel no pain, I simply cannot. Pain was something given to mortals to make them shun injury and death. I am immortal, and as such I never needed pain. What I feel instead is..alive. I remember everything now. When you live forever what is hot and cold, sorrow and joy, anger and love? Time erodes the difference between ALL things and in the end eternity merely makes these things meaningless. To die.to die gives you life.and makes it worth something.  
  
An end...  
  
I am barely alive now, and the destruction around me is reaching its height. The mountain too, it seems, cannot survive this fury for it quakes and rumbles in its own death throws. Great fissures appear and Arreat begins to crumble. Suddenly, light appears. Not from the worldstone, but from dwindling stars and a rising sun. Great chunks of the mountain have given way to the outside and I feel the cool air of dawn and hear the sounds of an entire world with my fading senses. It is good I think.that.they will survive. That they..will live...and..die.............................. .. ....... ........In a new world. 


End file.
